Monday, 28 June 2010

400 Swifts, a Hobby and a pint of cold lager please

At least some Great Spotted Woodpeckers have bred successfully in the area, this juvenile was on our garden feeder this morning. An early evening wander this evening produced a huge flock of over 400 swifts feeding over the River Thame and one high altitude Hobby:

Then a movement in the wheat field caught my eye, there was clearly an animal moving about some 3 metres from where I was standing. It then stopped moving. My interest stimulated, I decided to step into the field to investigate, fully expecting a juvenile Pheasant or a Brown Hare to explode from under my foot at any moment. I approached the area where I had last seen movement and peered in. I could make out what looked like a brown back pressed against the ground at the base of the wheat crop, but getting a clear line of sight was going to be impossible. Bracing myself for an imminent explosion of sound and or noise as whatever was there bolted away, I parted the wheat curtain and looked in.... and found myself face to face with the black and white face of a Badger, starring back at me from no more than a metre away! It then turned around, looked back over it's shoulder and walked away into the wheat field, as if nothing had happened at all. Which, in the grander scheme of things, I suppose hadn't.